


to take care of you

by lahtays



Category: The Wayhaven Chronicles (Interactive Fiction)
Genre: Established Relationship, F/F, Fluff, Hurt/Comfort, Sexual Inexperience, oh i actually have no idea what to tag this as lol, soft ava hours, spicier tags to be added for part 2 wink wonk
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-10
Updated: 2020-09-10
Packaged: 2021-03-06 19:08:49
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,188
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26383918
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lahtays/pseuds/lahtays
Summary: Beatrice watches her. Ava watches back – notes her own foolish fears reflected back at her through blown, dilated pupils. Idled fingers tangle around the bunched up fabric of Ava’s shirt, and Triss's thumb against her skin feels like the ominous ticking of clock hands, each rhythmic stroke seemingly counting down to something inevitable and terrifying. The silence seeps in between them again, filling every crack and crevice until Ava's lungs feel so filled with it she hardly trusts herself to inhale.And still Beatrice watches her. Her eyes flicker down to Ava's mouth. She bites her lip.She's going to ask any moment no –“Can I ask you something, Ava?”
Relationships: Detective/Ava du Mortain, Female Detective/Ava du Mortain
Comments: 11
Kudos: 65





	to take care of you

She's going to ask any moment now. 

Ava can feel the question already, or the heaviness of it, waiting in the scarce few inches of space between them. A charge in the air, a shadow in a sideways glance, a skip in her own unsteady pulse. She's going to ask any moment now. She might as well have asked already. 

“Did you have a nice night tonight?” 

“Yes. It was – it was pleasant.” 

A small, slow nudge of Beatrice's boot closes the front door behind them with a click. The soft sound doesn't echo, but it's memory leaves a thunderous ringing in Ava's ears, even as the detective shuffles forwards into the living room, shrugging out of her jacket and flicking on a dim yellow lamp. 

She had been wise to bring something warm. It had been so _cold_ tonight . . . 

“I'm glad,” Beatrice continues, her back still turned as she rummages through the contents of her tote bag. Her voice takes on a unusual quality in a quiet so taut as this. A little too clear, maybe. Clear like lucid dreaming. “I had wondered . . . well, I was worried, so – “ 

“You were worried?” 

The young woman straightens up, turns around. Her shoulders are tensed, blades pulled forwards and near sharp enough to cut through the thin spaghetti straps of her sundress. She hasn't worn a dress around Ava before, let alone anything so delicate as _floral_. Ava would remember if she had. 

She's careful not to let her eyes linger on the thin fabric's pattern as she crosses her arms, waiting – hoping – for Triss to fill the silence. 

“I only meant I'm glad it wasn't too much for you, too soon. I know the idea of us dating is still . . .” 

She doesn't need to finish the sentence. Ava frowns. “You needn't worry about me – about _that_ – detective. I . . . enjoyed our time together tonight. I always do. Never doubt that.” 

“’ _Detective_ ’? Really – still?” 

“ _Beatrice_.” Ava swallows, heart stuttering over each syllable. “ _Beatrice_ , I mean.” 

And Beatrice smiles at that. Her dimples catch in the light as she steps towards Ava, each footfall slow and deliberate and well-considered. “I still love it when you call me that, you know. _Nobody_ calls me that. Just you.” 

Ava doesn't know what to say, looking down at the brunette girl with her question looking right back, now so clearly illuminated in the gold-brown glint of her eyes. 

She's going to ask any moment now. “It is a beautiful name; it deserves to be said in full. _Beatrice_.” 

Triss hums a pleased laugh, smile widening as she leans up on her tiptoes to capture Ava's lips in a kiss. Her ink stained arms wrap around Ava's shoulders, body pressed tight to body as Ava pulls at her waist firmly to support her balance. Ava doesn't stumble back so much as willingly deflate against the doorframe, her fingers coming up to cradle the other woman, nestling against her cheek, her jaw, the warmth of her. 

She can feel Beatrice so _intensely_ tonight, like she were the only truly solid thing to exist outside all of this agonizing quiet. Each soft strand of hair tickles like goosefeathers again her knuckles, every warm hitched breath in her ear akin to the sound of waves trapped within a seashell. Triss's fingers tighten around the fabric of Ava's shirt, clutching at her for purchase and urging her closer still. Ava can only seize this the moment of brief certainty, her tongue migrating along the slope of the other woman's lips before dragging over the sharp edges of her teeth. 

Triss pulls away with a breathless whimper, and Ava's mouth journeys downwards to kiss at hollow of the young woman's neck. “You feel so nice . . . Ava . . .” She presses her chilled nose into the crook of Ava's shoulder and breathes deeply, before pausing after a moment and looking up. “Are - are you cold? I told you it was a bad idea not to bring your coat . . .” 

Ava frowns, still idly thumbing at the other woman's hair. “What? Of course I’m not cold. Are you?” 

“You have goosebumps, that's all.” 

“Oh. I see.” Ava looks down at her forearm. The soft blonde hairs cast strange shadows along the raised flesh that wasn't raised a moment ago. Ava looks back at Triss and manages a small smile. “I'm not cold, Beatrice. Far from it.” 

“Good goosebumps, then?” Triss smile. 

“Y-yes. Precisely.” 

Beatrice watches her. Ava watches back – notes her own foolish fears reflected back at her through blown, dilated pupils. Idled fingers tangle around the bunched up fabric of Ava’s shirt, and Triss's thumb against her skin feels like the ominous ticking of clock hands, each rhythmic stroke seemingly counting down to something inevitable and terrifying. The silence seeps in between them again, filling every crack and crevice until Ava's lungs feel so filled with it she hardly trusts herself to inhale. 

And still Beatrice watches her. Her eyes flicker down to Ava's mouth. She bites her lip. 

She's going to ask any moment no – 

“Can I ask you something, Ava?” 

The air grows still. Ava’s breath catches as she swallows. “What is it?” she murmurs, as if she hasn't known all night. All day. All week. 

“Ava . . .” Triss presses her nose against Ava's neck again, inhaling deep and slow. “Do you want to take me to bed?” 

There it is. The heaviness between them dissipates, leaving Ava feeling light and lightheaded. Gently, she untangles herself from the shorter woman's embrace, creating a space between them as she makes a slow retreat towards the living room. The soft clicking of heeled boots suggests that Beatrice is following not too far behind her. 

“Did I ask too soon?” Beatrice asks. Ava can all almost sense the furrowing brow behind her. 

She shakes her head slowly. “No.” 

Ava thinks, with no lack of venom towards herself, that her own complete lack of an answer is perhaps the most astonishing part of this whole sorry situation. 

“It's completely okay if you're not ready, Ava, or if you don’t want to. I won't be upset," she murmurs, voice muffled. “I just asked because I thought – well, after our last few weeks together it seemed as if you might, um . . .” Her voice trails off as if swallowed by the shadows of her apartment, and when she next speaks, Ava is surprised to find her settled in close as her side. “But I'm guessing I was a ways off, then?” 

Ava closes her eyes and holds off a tired sigh as Beatrice's hand travels upwards to rub comforting circles along her back. “I never said that,” she murmurs. 

Beatrice's hand falters only a little. “You . . . haven't really said much of anything, actually. There _is_ something on your mind, though, isn't there? I've felt it around you all night, like . . . I don't know. A heaviness." 

“Nothing but foolishness, I assure you.” 

“Consider me the absolute opposite of reassured.” Triss drops her fingers from Ava's back to wrap around her wrist instead, tugging her around to meet her eye. “If it's important to you, then it's not foolish, Ava. You can tell me anything, I mean it. _Anything_.” 

Ava almost thinks she _does_ mean it. The pools of her dark eyes look even deeper in the dim lamplight; deep and lovely and inviting enough to dive into and never re-emerge. The rest of her features offer promises of a similar nature; understanding, acceptance, truthfulness. Trust. 

Beatrice Maddox makes trusting her seem so effortless. Easy, like falling to one's death. Ava takes a breath, and then takes the plunge. 

“I . . . think about it. Or, rather, I think about _you_ , ” she murmurs, looking down at their intertwined fingers. “You should know that I have little interest in casual sex, or sex at all, for the most part. I've a – a disinclination towards it, I suppose, or towards the few people who have expected it of me, perhaps. But I do think about _you_ , often, detective. _Beatrice_. I think about how much I want you, and . . . and I . . . “ Her words fail her, and she pinches the bridge of her nose in frustration. “And _you_ are the _only_ woman I've desired, the only woman I've - I've _thought about_ , in . . . in such an inexpressibly long time it may as well be the _first_ time.” 

The admission hangs suspended in the stillness between them, long and unsettled enough to usher in another icy gust of doubt. Ava bites the inside of her cheek as Beatrice regards her, wide eyed and blinking and seemingly fully taken off guard. 

Ava is half a beat away from dismissing her fool outburst entirely when the young woman finally speaks. “’The first time’ . . .” she repeats slowly. “You mean – “ 

“I mean I am _profoundly_ inexperienced,” Ava finishes sharply. “Out of practice by a few centuries, give or take. What little intimacy I have partaken in over the years, _well_. It bares no resemblance to what l feel, nor what I wish to have, with you.” 

“So what is it that you want to have with me, Ava?” 

Ava sighs and lets her eyes flutter shut, pressing her temple to Beatrice's. “Surely more than just sex for the sake of sex. I would like . . . more than anything, I _want_ to make you happy. I want to be perfect for you, to make you feel . . .” 

“You want it to be special, but you're worried you won't be good at it.” 

“No. Yes. Maybe. I . . . why are you _laughing_ at me?” 

“Not _at_ you, Ava!” Triss exclaims. Ava imagines her words would somewhat more convincing, were they not followed by another burst of muffled giggles. “It's just . . . whatever experience you do or don't have means nothing to me. Seriously. Just the fact that you're so concerned about me feeling good means you're _already_ perfect. Because that's all that matters, really; wanting to take care of the person you love.” 

“I do love you.” Ava frowns, squeezing the younger woman's fingers. “And I want so badly to take care of you.” 

“I know. But maybe for tonight, if you want, you might let me take care of _you_ , instead.” 

There's an audible finality in this new proposition, and a sense that, should Ava refuse, the subject won't be brought up by Beatrice again. The reassurance of that fact helps to subside Ava's reignited fears, as she presses the back of Triss's hand absently to her lips. Triss smiles patiently while she watched the other woman deliberate, thumb moving to caress Ava's cheek. 

_She has no right to make me feel this way,_ Ava thinks, with a frustration she has to work to muster up. _So secure. So disarmed. So horribly_ at ease _._

The frustration sizzles out just as quickly as it had arrived, snuffed by a stronger, stranger sensation of hope. Or, maybe stranger still, of excitement. Ava du Mortain needn't be afraid of anything. Why should she be afraid of the ridiculous girl who loves her? Who desires her, perhaps just as enormously as Ava desires her back? 

And it's so _cold_ tonight . . . 

When Ava breaks her silence, she does so murmured against the other woman's knuckles. “You will have to show me . . . that is to say, you will need to be patient . . .” 

“We can go slow as you want - we have all the time in the world. Are you _sure_ you want to?” Beatrice asks. She slips her hand from Ava's grasp, seeking to wrap her arms around the blonde woman's waist instead. She holds her so gently, delicately, as if _Ava_ were the fragile one between them. 

And maybe, just for tonight, Ava is okay with that being true. 

“Yes, I am certain. I want to.” _Want doesn't even begin to do it justice_. “I want to be with you.” 

A single arm releases its grip around Ava's hip, to snake up her chest and cradle snug against her jaw. “If you change you mind, I want you to tell me,” Beatrice says in seriousness. Her expression softens when Ava nods her agreement. “You have nothing to worry about when you're with me, Ava. Come here.” 

Ava obeys, craning her neck to meet Triss's parted lips. The kiss is engulfing, tumultuous. Paradoxical, in that it seems to ground her in reality whilst simultaneously spinning her wildly out of orbit. Ava melts against Triss's smaller frame, hands sweeping through her hair, along her arms, before settling to clutch at the thin fabric at her waist. Beatrice sighs her pleasure against Ava's lips, her own now working harder and faster as she grips intently at Ava's shoulders. As Ava's tongue breaches Triss's opened mouth, Triss in turn presses ever closer against her, sighing once more at the promise this newfound friction invites. 

In the dark, she slips her fingers under Ava's shirt, soft and cool and scaling upwards. 

Ava's breath grows rough. 

She barely notices, scarcely feeling her own feet, as Beatrice begins to lead her backwards, laughing quietly after every stumbled step. 

“Ava?” she mumbles, still smiling against Ava's mouth. 

Ava traces that smile with a half dozen fevered kisses. “Beatrice?” 

“Let’s call in sick tomorrow.” 

**Author's Note:**

> thank you so much for reading ! i haven't posted in a hot minute but the book three demo managed to pull my inspiration back from the depths and here we are like nothing ever happened :3
> 
> as always i hope yall enjoyed, feel free to let me know if u did! i'm working on part 2 now which will be, um :) spicie :) hence the explicit rating lol. it should be done soon but just to be safe i'll say it'll be posted before the end of the month! thanks again for reading! <3


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